Justices Kill Effort to Block Renewal Plan in Hollywood : Development: The state Supreme Court upholds rulings in favor of CRA’s massive project for the blighted area. A homeowners group leader says she is ‘devastated.’

The state Supreme Court has struck what appears to be the final blow against a five-year campaign by community activists to block a controversial $922-million Hollywood redevelopment project.

In a decision made public Monday, the court declined to hear an appeal by a coalition of renters, homeowners and environmentalists seeking to overturn lower court rulings that upheld the Community Redevelopment Agency’s massive project.

CRA officials wasted no time celebrating their victory before the state’s top court.

“We have been challenged at every level, and at every level . . . there has been no substance to the challenge,” CRA Chairman Jim Wood said at a news conference at the newly refurbished El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. “The agency’s redevelopment project is now cleared, money is available for Hollywood, and we expect now to get on with the business of redevelopment.”

The agency can now move ahead with its plan to engineer a 30-year overhaul of the blighted movie capital, expecting to have as much as $43 million in redevelopment funds and bond revenue to pay for revitalization projects.

“This is terrific news!” said Councilman Michael Woo, shouting over a blaring boom box carried by a passing group of punk rockers. Woo, who represents Hollywood, is a staunch supporter of the revitalization effort.

“Finally, the fat lady has sung in Hollywood,” he said. “It means that this operetta is over.”

When notified of the court decision, one of the plaintiffs broke into tears and openly wept.

“I am just devastated,” said Patricia Morley, an area resident who is president of Save Hollywood Our Town, a homeowners group. “Is it really true?” she asked. “When you work this hard for justice, I just can’t tell you how I feel. I feel like someone has died who was very close to me.”

Although the plaintiffs might be able to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Morley said the latest setback will end the court fight. Another major plaintiff, homeowner activist David Morgan, and the group’s lawyer, Dale Gronemeier, did not return calls.

The plaintiffs contended that the city-approved redevelopment plan was illegally written to favor big business interests over those of the many small-business owners and residents in Hollywood.

The 1,100-acre redevelopment area, at the core of Hollywood, includes historic Mann’s Chinese Theatre, the Sunset-Gower Studios and many of the film capital’s most historic buildings. It is also home to many poor and middle-income residents and merchants, who fear that they may be displaced by skyscrapers.

Critics of the project said Monday that, despite the end of the lawsuit, they still plan to fight the CRA in the political arena.

Both Woo and Wood appealed to Los Angeles County supervisors to immediately release more than $13 million in redevelopment money that has been held in escrow since the lawsuit was filed in 1986. Wood said the CRA plans to raise $30 million more through bonds in the “very near future” to begin funding housing, child-care, historic rehabilitation, cleanup and redevelopment projects.

At least some of that money, Wood said, is already spoken for. While funds for the project were frozen by the courts, the CRA had to borrow $25 million from other CRA projects and from city agencies for planning, administrative costs and seed money for redevelopment in Hollywood. CRA officials also had to spend more than $750,000 in fees to outside attorneys, CRA attorney Bruce Tepper said Monday.

Wood criticized the plaintiffs for trying to stymie the project by filing what he called baseless appeals. “Because of a lawsuit filed by less than 50 people,” Wood fumed, “we have been essentially hamstrung for five years. Now we can finally get on with what we do best--redevelopment.”

The redevelopment effort has been controversial since the City Council approved it in April, 1986. The project calls for overhauling an 1,100-acre area encompassing Hollywood’s once-glittering but now shabby commercial core.

The plaintiffs contended that the CRA never proved that there was enough blight to merit such massive redevelopment. Some residents said the CRA was planning to use eminent domain to kick them out of their houses so that commercial buildings could be put there.

Morley would not divulge how much the community groups spent to challenge the CRA, but said “we are still into the attorney for a lot of money.”

She said many residents supported the lawsuit because of the arrogant attitude of the CRA--”they treated us like dirt.”